Does “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” Stand the Test of Time?

The pirate kings hope to escape the clutches of the Flying Dutchman, but more importantly, can they escape the passage of time? Hundred Tomatoes hopes to get to bottom of Davy Jones's locker on this.

Disclaimer: For those who prefer the destination over the journey (there will be spoilers in this), you can scroll down to the very bottom to find the answer to this question, along with a “TL;DR” synopsis as to how we reached our verdict.

“You know what I absolutely love? Watching a movie that concludes on a cliffhanger, then waiting a year or longer for the second part to release so that I can figure out how the series ACTUALLY ends.”

Oddly enough, Julie Andrew’s performance of “My Favorite Things” in “The Sound of Music” never includes the above thought in that classic musical number. I can’t say I blame them, because obviously, if someone forced us to choose between cash grabs from Hollywood studio executives, bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens, we would take the latter two objects any day of the week without hesitation. The former likely landed on the shortlist of potential lyrics, but the moment the writers room workshopped the line, “wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings”, courtesy of someone clearly on crack, that shut down any additional suggestions. Comedian Jeff Dye once theorized that a homeless person came up with the ideas for that song, and I cannot help but wonder.

All sarcasm aside, in today’s day and age, we see movies split into two parts on a semi-regular basis. Examples that come to mind from recent memory include “Wicked”, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay”, “Dune”, and "The Avengers”. In certain cases, the studios do not overtly market these films as ones containing multiple parts, blindsiding moviegoers in the process. They must have simply “forgot” to mention that to the public, in the same way Al Capone haphazardly “forgot” to pay $215,000 in taxes to the IRS over the course of five years. Accidents happen, I guess.

Amidst all these “to be continued” flicks, it is important to take a step back and ask: where did that trend truly begin? Upon further reflection, it is hard not to reminisce about the impact the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise made on this style of filmmaking. After all, as I mentioned in my last retrospective, both “Dead Man’s Chest” and “At World’s End” grossed over a billion dollars, thus setting a financially strong precedent that viewers would come back for more if compelled enough by the first part of a movie.

Sometimes, as much as it pains me to say it, these splits can occur for valid reasons. Sometimes, they are drawing from extravagant pieces of literature, making it so that they cannot possibly cover all the material in under three hours. However, what fascinates me about the “Pirates of the Caribbean” stems from the fact that unlike “The Lord of the Rings” or “Dune”, they lacked massive novels to pull all their ideas from directly, thus forcing them to make an entire trilogy worth of content from scratch.

Originally, Disney only intended to release one “Pirates of the Caribbean”. But because of the enormous, yet unexpected success of “The Curse of the Black Pearl”, their executives saw an immense opportunity to call up 877-CASH-NOW for serious financial gains, so they shot both “Dead Man’s Chest” and “At World’s End” years later simultaneously on a whim, proposing that one would lead into the other. Upon the decision, only “Dead Man’s Chest” possessed a fully fleshed out screenplay during the time of production. Given the tight deadline to go along with the above fact, they seriously took “f*** it, we’ll do it live” to a whole new level on this one.

Naturally, given the nature of the already ambitious nature behind the filming, several roadblocks interfered with the production process. According to Director Gore Verbinski, their shoot got hit by a hurricane at one point, their tank stopped working, and they needed numerous nights of no sleep to get the projects across the finish line by the established due dates from the higher ups. They also needed to go from island to island for various shoots, spending extremely limited amounts of time in each of those locations. This forced them to mix in scenes from the second and third movies in one day’s worth of work.

Knowing the chaos behind the production, does “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” successfully ferry lost souls to the afterlife? Or does it get relegated to Davy Jones’s locker? Blackbeard must seriously be hoping we dig up a treasured answer for him on this one. Given that this came out nearly two decades ago, here is a brief synopsis of the plot:

Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) join forces with Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) to free Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from Davy Jones' locker. Meanwhile, the crew of the Flying Dutchman ghost ship wreaks havoc on the Seven Seas. The friends must navigate dangerous waters to confront Chinese pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) and, ultimately, they must choose sides in a battle wherein the pirate life hangs in the balance.

Without further perspective, let’s get to this retrospective! Savvy?

Unlike “The Lord of the Rings” where Peter Jackson and company took seven years to film the trilogy, the production for Gore Verbinski’s “Dead Man’s Chest” and “At World’s End” took barely seven months. It goes to show the duality of Hollywood filmmaking: some studios let their directors roam free with creativity, while others keep them on an extremely tight leash.

Knowing Disney’s desire these days to bombard consumers with endless streams of content from their established universes, it comes as no surprise that even nearly two decades ago, they had a fever, and at the time, the only prescription, was more “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. If therein lies one thing they love more than magical mice, it’s money. How does this short timeline for production hold up, all things considered?

Aesthetically, pretty much everything that works from my retrospective of “Dead Man’s Chest” applies to “At World’s End”. The CGI surprisingly, yet marvelously holds up, the action sequences all contain gripping moments, the score enthralls, the hairstyling/makeup is on point, costumes and production designs encapsulate, but most importantly, they introduce enough novelties to keep everything fresh. At no point does it feel like they lazily enact a simple copy/paste from the second film then move it over to the third one.

The addition of Singapore incorporates an entirely new universe that brings an immaculate, immersive vibe. It contains elaborate set pieces that further draws us into the wide swathe of the world they create, and new outfits, each incorporating a unique flair. Shipwreck Cove, where all the pirate kings need to meet to determine their strategy on how to combat the overwhelmingly powerful coalition of the Royal Navy and Flying Dutchman, also builds a consistent branding of ruggedness to the pirate lifestyle.

Certain elements of this rendition of “Pirates of the Caribbean” appear darker and drearier than their counterparts. The cinematography seems to use some darker filters at times to wash out colors. Stylistically, they want viewers examining everything with a sense of dread, due to the overwhelming power of the Royal Navy, which at this point captured the powerful Flying Dutchman after capturing the heart of Davy Jones at the end of the second film. You can sense a slightly grittier tone to this one compared to the previous two, at least from a cinematography and editing perspective. The typical humor still finds its way in throughout, so they sprinkle lighthearted moments despite these changes.

One aspect where “Dead Man’s Chest” wins out is in the variety of their locations. Since this film spends the brunt of its time on ships fighting various battles, they do not inject as much variance as the previous two films. The islands they incorporate in “At World’s End” while nice, lack the same scenic pizazz of their counterparts. Of course, that decision stems more from an intentionality to showcase the vast emptiness of Davy Jones’s locker (which admittedly, I found the vast emptiness of that universe extremely intriguing, illustrating the despair behind purgatory nicely) as opposed to anything else.

How does the plot hold up in this? After all, this aimed to conclude the whole series at the time.

You can tell the writers swing for the fences big time. Not only do they attempt to tie up all the loose ends, the plot contains at least eight different characters playing some kind of a prominent role. As a result, a lot of moving parts go around, creating conflicting motives going up against one another, along with elaborate schemes that require build up. Not all of them end satisfactorily, but I appreciate the ambition behind the attempt, along with actual conclusions without cliffhangers.

For starters, they add more depth to Davy Jones. You get an opportunity to explore his real motives behind his actions, seeing as they unveil that he possesses a romantic past with Calypso, the Goddess of the Sea the pirates foresee as their final hope of stopping the antagonists. The betrayal that occurs between the two of them ultimately drives much of his ruthless decision making. Unfortunately, he takes more of a back seat role, since Lord Beckett controls the brunt of his actions. Personally, I find Davy Jones much more intimidating and interesting than Lord Beckett, so while the plot decision logically makes sense, subjectively speaking, I do not enjoy it nearly as much.

Speaking of Beckett, I like his strategic thinking for the most part, except at the very end. When Jack Sparrow and company successfully wrangle the Flying Dutchman out of the Royal Navy’s control, he just kind of…. Gives up…. His ship sails right in between the two most prominent ships in the movie and basically lets them blast his crew to kingdom come. I wish they would have written in an actual way to outfox him in battle as opposed to lucking out on the fact that he gets the “yips”, failing to command his ship to fire their cannons at both The Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman respectively.

So many character arcs play out in “At World’s End” to the point where it can feel a touch overwhelming at times. Luckily, they give closure to essentially every character. Some die (like Commodore Norrington), others make massive sacrifices (like Will Turner), others step up to the plate in a big way (Elizabeth Turner, who grows exponentially in this one). Not every arc leaves me satisfied, since they get stretched so thin to the point where they cannot build out some of the developments as much as I would like, but I appreciate the efforts to create dynamism. Rumor has it that some of the deleted scenes add in this depth that I long for in movies, so I will likely check those out when I get a chance.

Although aesthetically I enjoy the addition of Singapore and the people in it, the addition of the Pirate King Sao Feng does not do much in terms of real food for thought. Nothing about that character sticks out as memorable to me apart from his first scene. Much like “Dead Man’s Chest”, most of the characters do not possess internal qualities that drive their decision making but rather serve as vessels to advance the plot forward.

Because all the Pirates need to band together to fight the main antagonists, they hint at some of the other universes, prompting them all to come together to decide whether they burn the “nine pieces of eight” that would let the Goddess Calypso free in hopes she will help them fight back against the overwhelming fleet on the verge of attacking them. I like the scene where they all vote on it because of the way Captain Jack Sparrow throws a comedic wrench into everything. However, I find the endgame behind Calypso a touch unsatisfying. They re-unite through unconventional means, though they make it unclear whether the two actually re-connect in a meaningful way. On the bright side, her creation of a massive whirlpool help the set the scene for a memorably action-packed final battle.

In “Dead Man’s Chest” I lament the lack of in-depth theme exploration. With “At World’s End”, they at least attempt to make commentaries on mortality. Several characters juggle with an internal conflict as to their overarching purpose in life, wondering if they successfully left a legacy on the world, or if they would rather continue figuring out how to do so. For example, Jack Sparrow initially believes being relegated to permanent high sea sailing on the Flying Dutchman perfectly serves his overarching life purpose, only to later sacrifice that for someone he feels more deserving of it. They veer in and out of this exploration, leaving me with at least something to think about after watching it.

The acting again gets the job done. They introduce so many characters in this that it gets stretched even thinner than the previous one, preventing opportunities to showcase seriously powerful range. However, they all bring a charm to the screen that helps create a memorable universe.

Given that the film whilst in production did not even possess a completed screenplay right out the gate, all things considered, it is impressive that they even could come up with something remotely coherent. Does it get confusing at times? Yes. Is it the most satisfying ending you will ever, see? No. Does it make you think deeply about life? Not really, but it tries to inject some interesting commentaries on mortality and despair from time to time. Most importantly though, does it tie up all the loose ends in an entertaining fashion? Absolutely.

With all of this in mind, it is time for Hundred Tomatoes to put their nine pieces of eight braincells together to cast their vote on the kingpin issue of the hour:

Does “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” Stand the Test of Time?

Aesthetically, yes. Plot/writing wise, no (though we see some improvements from “Dead Man’s Chest” in this regard).

TL;DR Synopsis: “At World’s End” contains excellently choreographed action sequences with compelling physical world building whose plot ultimately overextends itself, leaving a slight element of unsatisfaction in that regard.

Hundred Tomatoes Score: 70/100

In case you were wondering, here are the Top 10 Highest Grossing Films of the 2000s, and where Hundred Tomatoes stands of them. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” is the sixth entry in this series.

10. Shrek 2 – Yes, it stands the test of time for the most part - 76/100

9. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Unequivocally yes it stands the test of time – 92/100

8. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – Aesthetically stands the test of time but not writing wise – 70/100

5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – Does not stand the test of time – 51/100

4. The Dark Knight – 100% YES to standing the test of time – 94/100

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – Aesthetically stands the test of time but not writing wise – 64/100

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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